David Plouffe, newly installed senior adviser to Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, warned Tuesday that Republican nominee Donald Trump will become an "all-powerful, all-encompassing" figure if he wins November's election.
Plouffe made the comments Tuesday at an Axios House event in Chicago, trying to link Trump to Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, a vision for government that Trump has repeatedly disavowed.
"When somebody basically says they want to be a dictator on day one ... that gives you a pretty good sense of how that person wants to act as president," said Plouffe, who just joined Harris' campaign earlier this month.
Plouffe, who served as former President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign manager, has the title of "senior adviser for path to 270 & strategy," which means he will be working to help Harris win the 270 Electoral College votes she would need to win the election.
Harris, in trying to distinguish herself from President Joe Biden, is focusing more on "freedom" than "democracy," a cornerstone of Biden's campaign, according to Axios.
"Freedom really does cover a lot of important areas to the American electorate and of course the flip side is Donald Trump is a threat to all of those things," Plouffe said.
Plouffe went on to say that Project 2025 is about "removing the guardrails, so Donald Trump can be an all-powerful, all-encompassing figure in our lives and I think that's going to be a very important part of the election."
Trump campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita released a statement on July 30 saying that "reports of Project 2025's demise would be greatly welcomed." The statement came the day that Project 2025 architect Paul Dans stepped down from the Heritage Foundation.
"President Trump's campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the president in any way," Wiles and LaCivita said.
Trump himself denounced Project 2025 as "extremist" last month.
"Like some on the right, severe right came up with this — severe right — came up with this Project 2025, and I don't even know. I mean, some of them, I know who they are, but they're very, very conservative — just like you have this sort of the opposite of the radical left," he said during a rally in Michigan.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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